- A band of severe thunderstorms ravaged the region with high winds and blinding rain on Thursday that has left many without power.

A funnel cloud was spotted in Harford Township, Susquehanna County, during the onslaught, but the National Weather Service (NWS) has reported that no tornados were spotted in the Wayne County region.

The NWS did confirm a tornado touched down in Elmira, N.Y., and officials would be visiting the area Friday to determine the strength of that tornado.

Thursday night, drivers were met with roadways blocked with branches and trees. State Route 171 at Herrick Center was closed around 6 p.m. Thursday. Two houses fell victim to uprooted trees that crashed through the roofs. There were multiple large trees either partially or fully blocking roadways in Orson as well.

The Carley Brook area was also hit hard with reports of many trees down and even severe damage to roofs.

It appeared that the area around Milanville was also hit very hard.

Steve Ircha lives on River Road near the intersection of Calkins Road and had a tree blow over in his yard.

“I didn’t even know it until this morning,” said Ircha while surveying the damage.

He pointed out the tree actually struck another tree as it fell or it could have come crashing into his house.

Just across River Road, a tree took out a power pole and power lines. Crews from PennDOT were on the scene around 10 a.m. Friday and were removing the trees.

Local residents, who were standing in the road taking photos and watching crews remove the trees, said the storm struck at around 5 p.m. on Thursday and they feared power would be out for quite some time because of the heavy damage in that particular area. River Road was closed the entire time and was also shut down further south for a time when a tree fell across the road.

Across the river near Lake Huntington, N.Y., power went out just after 5 p.m. on Thursday and didn’t come back on until around 6 a.m. Friday.

As of Friday afternoon, PPL Electric Utilities remained in a storm emergency from Thursday at 2:15 p.m. Throughout Wayne County, 1,375 people were without power as of Friday afternoon with 2,230 customers successfully restored.

Damascus Township was hit very hard during the storm, with 583 people remaining without power as of 3:45 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Other townships with the highest power outage count as of Friday were 52 in Berlin Twp., 147 in Dyberry Twp. and 156 in Mount Pleasant Twp.

PPL is expecting power to be restored to the area by the end of the day on Saturday. There were 650 individual trouble cases reported as of Friday morning, which means the pace of repairs can be slower in some areas. As of Friday morning, 14,600 customers remained without power with 61,000 people restored since the beginning of the storm.

Page 2 of 2 - On Friday morning, crews were seen assembling at the PPL lot on Highway 652 just north of Honesdale. Crews were coming in from various parts of the state and other states. PPL on Thursday, prior to the storm, said they had assembled crews in preparation for the storm.

If you are currently affected by the storm and are in need of ice and water, PPL has made free ice and water available to customers in the area at participating area vendors. Those locations are: Joe’s Kwik Mart, Hamlin; Weis Market #106, Hamlin, Weis Market #157, Hawley; Weis Market #170, Honesdale; Joe’s Kwik Mart, Honesdale; Joe’s Kwik Mart, Newfoundland and Joe’s Kwik Mart, Waymart.

All customers are urged to report all outages by calling 1-800-DIAL-PPL (342-5775) or by visiting www.pplelectric.com.